Author of three books. This blog not very active so follow on Twitter: @gary_weiss

Monday, October 15, 2007

The MOASS That Never Was

The world of baloney was all agog in recent days because of the approach of Oct. 15 -- today. This was the day that all the many "grandfathered fails to deliver" were supposed to be closed out under a nonsensical bit of rulemaking called Reg. SHO.

That sounds like a lot of irrelevant gobbledygook, and it is. To sum up several tons of baloney into a few words: the stock market conspiracy types (in stuff like this and this) were expecting that their massive "scandal" would result in a huge upward move in the markets today. This was a central event, a kind of Bastile Day, to the inept CEOs and penny stock types who promote this discredited cause.

Well, guess what, folks? There was a big move in the market today: downward, in all stocks including the stock market conspiracy cult stocks. Doggies like Overstock.com actually fell. Overstock was down 3%. Novastar Financial, a favorite of Internet huckster Phil Saunders a/k/a "Bob O'Brien," was down 1%.

Saunders is a former used medical equipment salesman who uses his shilling expertise to convince investors that a massive market conspiracy -- and not poor corporate results -- causes bad stocks to perform badly. He uses a pseudonym -- his real name was revealed by the New York Post some months ago -- in order to avoid taking responsibility for his bad advice.

As usual, the baloney peddlers have been proven wrong with their predictions of a MOASS ("mother of all short squeezes"). But don't worry. The excuse machine is churning away, and a new fairy tale will soon replace the old one.

UPDATE: D-Day having been a dud, the latest word from delicatessen-land is that the date of the big MOASS has been rescheduled for 35 days from now. Stay tuned.

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About Me

I'm a journalist and author. My latest book is AYN RAND NATION: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul (St. Martin's Press: Feb. 28, 2012). My previous books were Wall Street Versus America (Portfolio: 2006) and Born to Steal (Warner Books: 2003). I was an investigative reporter and Wall Street writer for BusinessWeek, a contributing editor at Condé Nast Portfolio, and have written for the Daily Beast, Parade magazine, Salon, The Street.com, Fortune.com, Barron's and many other publications. I was an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of Journalism. Follow me on Twitter @gary_weiss Email: garyweiss dot email at gmail dot com